Public Edible Landscaping: The shape of the movement worldwide

Common Green: bringing 'place-making' to a regional level of organization

The Common Green non-profit aims to organize public edibles plantings on a regional level. Our work involves coordinating volunteers, fundraising, plant donations and organizing trainings. If you are interested in becoming involved on an organizational level, please get in touch! common.green.ma@gmail

Videos: Pam Warhurst - "How we can eat our landscapes!"

Pam Warhurst, of the Incredible Ediblemovement in Todmorden, UK, speaks on TED about how we can all benefit from edibles planted in public places. On the left, an overview of Incredible Edible's recent successes.

Public forest gardens around the world:

A group called the Friends of the Beacon Food Forest have designed, fund raised and and are planting a 7 acre public forest garden in Seattle! Jefferson Park, near downtown, will be transformed into extensive orchards and community gardens. This inspiring, municipal scale permaculture project can serve as precedent and a model for other communities. Full article here, as well as the FBFF park design and the group's website.

Related Organizations across the World

"The best time to plant a fruit tree... is 20 years ago!"

How true is that proverb!

Today, half of the humans on this living Planet live in cities -- ecosystems where we and our buildings dominate, while plants and other animals are scarce. Those few trees that grace our sidewalks, the hedges along our borders, and our grassy lawns are precious company indeed... but since they rarely bear fruit, we have little meaningful relationship beyond walking by them. We may not even know their names.

Meanwhile we all know that the food we city dwellers eat doesn't come from down town. It's grown, transported, and preserved with fuel fossils... each bite traveling on average 1,500 miles from farm to table. Imagine walking 1,500 miles from your farm, with a sack of potatoes you grew, to a family that bought them!

As food prices rise and industrial, unsustainable agricultural practices endeavor to produce more and more nutritionally depleted staple grains - at the expense of ecosystems, animals, plants, and land-based peoples around the world - we should all realize the necessity of growing as much food in and around cities as soon as possible!

As city folk we have a responsibility to the food we eat - and that means to the land it is grown on, even ifthat is hundreds of miles away. We have a responsibility to take the pressure off of the distant ecosystems which nourish us, and we can do this, to a small but important degree, by growing more food in cities. Given the time it takes for a tree to grow to bear fruit... we should act now, and no later!

What might we regret having done or not done, ten years from now?

Consider this scenario: During a nationwide famine caused by failures of a large scale, industrialized food system, in which millions of people are starving, communities receive seeds to plant perennial gardens as a last resort. And folks, too hungry to wait for the vegetables to grow, eat the seeds instead.This quote describes such an event, taking place in the 1940s in the Ukraine, then part of the USSR. What steps might we take now, to make life easier and happier in the future? Even if there never is such a famine, how could an abundance of free, tasty food be a bad thing?

"At the new children's agricultural center, all sorts of old dears used to come along and try and persuade us to join the junior naturalists and learn how to produce record harvests according to the [newest agricultural methods]. Zhorik and I put our names down, and we were each given a patch of land and a packet of ground-nuts to plant. Unfortunately we tried eating them and couldn't stop until we had finished the lot. We took one look at each other, and without another word ran away.- "Babi Yar: A Documentary Novel" ‎Anatoly Kuznetsov, 1981.

Common concerns and reservations about edible landscaping:While the merits and benefits of edible landscaping are numerous, a number of concerns are often raised in response to landscaping proposals. Here are some we've heard many times, and positive responses that may help reassure others during the proposal process.Contamination of dog "waste":

Though tree crops would benefit from such 'manure', dog poop on veggie beds is a potential health concern for those eating low growing, leafy annual vegetables. We hope that folks would follow existing expectations or regulations regarding curbing dogs. If a serious problem or concern, such as in dog parks, taller growing species or non-food species like wildflowers could be selected. Keep in mind that too much urine can burn plants.

Heaps of unharvested, rotting fruit:

...could look unsightly, be hazardous, or attract animals. How confident are we, in a decade or more, that our food needs will be completely met by existing systems of food distribution? Given that it takes a decade or so for fruit trees to come into full production, do we imagine that by that time, the need for local, free, organic and fresh fruit in the community will be greater, or less than it is now? In the event that passersby don't harvest ripe fruit and it does fall to the ground, there is great precedent for community organizations to make use of fallen fruit by organized harvesting, processing, and distribution.

Fallen fruit and nuts are a physical hazard for pedestrians or bikers:

It's possible that folks could slip on mushy apples or a chestnut could pop a bike tire. Care should of course be taken to consider planting distance from sidewalks, roads and bike paths, and overhanging limbs pruned when necessary. However, many so-called ornamental trees are already abundant in cities, planted by city government or institutions, which do overhang roads and sidewalks, showering them with 'ornamental', though delicious and edible, fruit in the summer and fall. Again, fallen fruit is not a problem caused by poor landscape design, it is a symptom of poor community organization and awareness.

Bees & bears & raccoons, oh my!

Bees are an asset to orchards, garden, and fruit production. Bees and other pollinators are struggling with serious threats throughout the world - habitat loss, pesticide poisoning and diseases - and deserve our assistance. Rather than viewing flowers as a threat to humans by increasing our exposure to bees, we can view plantings as an opportunity to provide support to pollinators in the form of food, habitat and appreciation. While some folks are seriously allergic to bees, consider the quantity of bees that come into urban areas already to mine sugar out of soda cans, ice cream puddles, and doughnut dumpsters. Fruit tree blossoms tend to be higher up, keeping the bees' flight path out of the way of people. Lower wildflower plantings could increase human / bee collisions, which should be considered.

Bears and other omnivores already inhabit suburban areas far more than we think, feasting out of trashcans, compost piles and bird feeders. We should be cautious, for their sake, about encouraging more to venture into residential areas, tempted by fallen fruit. In this case, if there are hypothetical heaps of unharvested fruit, we don't have a bear problem - we have a cultural problem in which the food isn't being collected or distributed to those who could use it. This can be fixed by organizing harvests and donations to food pantries, or increasing public awareness about planting locations, and ripening times.

Allergen hazards:

Some people are severely allergic to tree nuts including almonds, walnuts, gingko, chestnut, pecan, and hazelnut. Acorn allergies are almost unheard of. Nevertheless, walnuts, pine, and horse chestnut are ubiquitous landscaping choices already. Unfortunately, since most folks might not be able to identify nut trees, good labeling will help folks keep their distance if need be. Additionally, nuts on the tree or ground in their shells are more or less contained.

Plantings vandalized or destroyed:

Sure, it's possible. Larger trees are more hardy, and signage could help potential vandals develop a sense of ownership of the plantings. If it's destroyed, it can be replanted. Remember: always look on the bright side of life!

Plantings will look disorganized, and won't be maintained:

This is a common concern for city officials or institutions charged with maintaining a professional, tidy landscaping appearance. It is up to volunteers to demonstrate commitment, competence and capacity to continually maintain plantings to an agreed upon aesthetic. Having a large pool of eager volunteers is critical in this respect to avoid burn out and to keep momentum going. Drafting 'contracts' in which volunteers commit to maintenance of a certain planting area for a given season to consistent standards will help to make sure that all areas are being tended, and will keep volunteers engaged with ongoing work.

Plantings mowed by mistake or be a headache to maintenance crews:

Prominent staking, mulching and labeling will increase folks' awareness of plants and ideally keep them from being mowed over. If possible, negotiate plantings with existing maintenance staff before hand to make sure their needs are considered. Over time, plantings will reduce the area needed to be mowed or weed-whacked, and if volunteers are able to take on such maintenance reliably, institutions will be much more willing to accept plantings as an opportunity to reduce maintenance expenses.